


48 Years

by chxxyas



Series: In This Life [1]
Category: GOT7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-02 17:15:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12730863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chxxyas/pseuds/chxxyas
Summary: Follows the story of Im Jaebum as he learned to cope with loss.





	48 Years

**Author's Note:**

> I started this at 11:30 and finished it at 2 in the morning so expect a lot of typos and grammatical errors. I'll proofread read it when i have some free time. Till then xoxo

The heavy downfall prevented Jaebum from going out with his friends that day. It's Saturday and the last thing he wanted to do is stay alone at home and dwell in his emotions. The 28 year old who was standing at the corridor looking at his drenched yard retreated back into his two storey house, sighing in defeat. The huge, mock tudor living space has never felt so empty. He was so used to having the presence of another in that house. A presence that long has left the place he called home. A presence he can no longer feel no matter how much he screams and begs the Heavens.

Jaebum spent 8 years alone after Jinyoung left. He remembered how heavy his heart felt as he silently watched the younger packed his things into designated boxes and loaded them onto his silver coloured MPV. Looking at him with those sorrowful eyes as he drove out of the driveway, away from Jaebum. He remembered how he spent the first few days just laying on the couch, staring into nothing with untouched books scattered all over the floor. Black and white earpieces stuck to both his ears as he spent the rest of the day sleeping in the melody of the song he had composed with the latter. He had been disgruntled, too far into his thoughts to be focusing on anything.

It took him some time to finally recover. A year to be precise. A whole year of unproductivity must've impacted his career as a musician and it did. Though some of his fans still remain, he worked hard to win the rest back. Music is his escapade. Somewhere he'll run to when things gets tough. It is where he finds solace in the absence of his childhood friend.

No.

Jaebum had stopped calling Jinyoung his friend a long time ago, ever since he was 18. Jinyoung, to him, is a life long partner. A person that he wanted to be with until he breathed his very last breath. Unfortunately, Jinyoung had walked out of his life before their hair even managed to turn grey and Jaebum has no one but himself to blame for that. He hated Jinyoung for leaving. But he hated himself more for not trying to stop him. For letting him go so easily.

The prime days of his youth was filled with laughter and fond memories. At the age of 38, Jaebum could only look back on his past from a distance, as if it was not his. It's been 18 years since Jinyoung left and Jaebum still spent his years in solitude. He had retired from the music industry a few years back due to health issues. The brunette took one glace at the mirror on his bedside table. Visible signs of wrinkles has started appearing on his face and Jaebum knew he was aging. He lost track of time 18 years ago. He's stuck in a time paradox of when Jinyoung was still there, with him, laying on the leather couch in his living room reading books from his shelves. Picking out the ones that he liked and talking about it with Jaebum until they both fell asleep late at night. Jinyoung would wake up not long after falling asleep to fetch a blanket from the bedroom. He covered Jaebum with it and went back to the other couch to sleep while clutching his arms in an attempt to warm himself. Since that day the nights had been cold, but no ones there to cover him with a warm blanket and Jaebum let a single tear dropped from his eye, covering the pillow with patches of wet, warm liquid. That was the first time he ever cried.

Even when he's 48, Jaebum couldnt bring himself to start a family. The whole idea seems outrageous to him. He still lives alone and he had kept his house the same way as the time when Jinyoung left. At times when he had nothing to do after finishing his chores, Jaebum would pull out one or two albums from his wooden drawer. The albums had collected dust in the years its being kept in that small space, unopened. He wiped the dust with a wet tissue to avoid it from entering his nostrils and making him sneeze. His nose had been very sensitive lately.

28 years of not having Jinyoung by his side, Jaebum had forgotten how he looked like. Heck, these days he kept forgetting about a lot of things. Mostly simple ones like where he put his house keys, did he watered the plant so on and so forth.

Park Jinyoung is but a distant memory to him. Jaebum wondered if he even existed in the first place. Everything felt so surreal and Jaebum couldnt help but feel uneasy. His long, boney fingers flipped the page one by one and he's once again assured that such a person existed. That Park Jinyoung is not just a fragment of his imagination. That he was once with him, walking side by side as they both promised to have their graves next to each other. To be together even after death.

At the age of 58, Jaebum's memories had deteriorated completely. He was sent to a retirement home 5 kilometers away from where his house still stands. In his will he had asked to donate all of his assets to charity except the house to which he let a distant relative be in charge of taking care of it. He wanted his memories with Jinyoung to be preserved. Ironically, he himself couldnt even remember them.

Jaebum had just turned 68 the other day but a birthday celebration at his age means nothing. He would forget about everything a moment later and it pains him everytime it did. Stroking strands of grey from his face, Jaebum stared out of the window of the fourth floor to the well kept garden outside. Jaebum had finally entirely forgotten about Jinyoung, after 48 long years. 

The next day, a funeral was held. A resident of Hope, the retirement house which Jaebum currently resides in, passed away due to old age but no one came to claim his body. The event was held privately and only attended by the staff and the residents, including Jaebum. A staff came to his room to escort him to the burial grounds. She was a woman in her mid twenties, with long, straight hair tied in a ponytail. Jisoo had to explain it to him again that a resident had passed away and that he needed to be at the burial now. She didnt mind Jaebums constant nagging and complaints as shes used to it by now. Jisoo knows what Jaebum had gone through and its all the more reason that she should treat him as nicely as she could. And so whenever she saw Jaebum struggling to eat at the cafeteria or having trouble pushing his wheelchair in the hallways she'd be the first to help, a smile never leaving her face.

Beads of rain dropped from the dark, cloudy skies. The burial went as planned and the residents and staffs all mourned the loss in silence, despite some not personally knowing the deceased. Jaebum followed what everyone else is doing and silently prayed for the soul of the unknown man to rest in peace. Soft droplets of rain landed on his face, a tear fell from his eye. That was the second time hes ever cried and it was for a stranger, a person he hardly knows. Well not that it matters. Everyone is the same to him anyway. By the end of the day, he'll forget.

A day after the funeral, Jaebum overheard a staff talking about the man who had died. Apparently, his wife passed away 10 years ago. Through years of marriage he wasnt able to have an offspring so he spent years living alone before being sent to Hope by a distant relative. Jaebum is all too familiar with the kind situation the poor mans been in, and the feeling of solitude that follows. Though hes not quite sure why. The staff whispered a barely audible string of sentence afterwards that might be a name. Jaebums not sure. She said it a second time and this time its a bit clearer.

Park Jinyoung is his name.

Wrong.

Park Jinyoung was his name.

There was a tug at his heartstrings at the mention of the name. A name all too familiar, but at the same time foreign. Again, hes unsure of what he feels at the moment as he pushed his wheelchair back to his room and locked it. He laid on his bed and fell asleep not long after. But he still couldnt shake off the horrible feeling in his guts. A part of his past resurfaced that day and Jaebum hated it. He was torn between wanting to remember and wanting to forget.

It was 11 oclock at night when he suddenly woke up. He forgot why he fell asleep in the first place. Jaebum rubbed his wrinkled temple and pushed strands of hair from his face. The 68 year old man felt a sudden urge take a breathe of fresh air. He went alone. To where his heart is leading him because he could no longer rely on his head. And surprisingly his heart took him to the exact spot he was at a few days ago. The day of the funeral. He stared confusingly at the gravestone in front of him.

"Why am i here again?" he asked himself before glancing over at the name engraved on the tomb. Everything came flooding back to him and he cant stop himself from crying.

An unexpected reunion after 48 years. Jaebum clenched his fist and pounded his chest as streams of warm liquid flowed endlessly on his cheeks.

Jaebum planted his face on the tombstone, feeling sleepy after crying for so long. For moment he thought he saw a glimpse of Jinyoung. Young as he was the day he left, and Jaebum let one last tear fell as he slowly close his eyelids, slipping out of conciousness next to what remained of the person he used to cherish. Out in the open, with stars twinkling in the night sky. He felt as if someone was wrapping him with a warm blanket, despite no one actually being there. For the first time in 48 years, the night was warm, Jaebum thought before his eyelids completely shuts.

The next day, Hope held another funeral.

The man was buried next to Park Jinyoung and that man is Im Jaebum. That man was Im Jaebum.


End file.
